The one Canadian Rockies hiking book you need to own

I’m on a quest to do some serious day hikes in the Canadian Rockies next summer and have been looking for a good guidebook to take with me while hiking. Canadian Rockies Trail Guide by Brian Patton and Bart Robinson seems to be such a book.  The book has been around since 1971 and has new editions come out every 5 or so years.  The 8th edition is the latest edition and was published in 2007.

The description on Amazon.com says that “With sales of over 230,000 copies, the Canadian Rockies Trail Guide is one of best-selling non fiction books in Canadian publishing history. Hikers affectionately refer to this hiking guidebook as the Bible.”  That certainly gets my attention!

Canadian Rockies Trail Guide

The reviews for the book are also very positive and make it seem like this IS the right hiking trail guide to own.  I picked out some sentences from the reviews that really stand out:

• “I praise this book so highly because of the frustrations I have faced while trying to find trail guides for other national parks that are as clear and concise. It thoroughly covers trails in Banff, Jasper, Yoho, Koontenay, Waterton Lakes, Mount Robson and several other areas with accurate descriptions so one knows when to take the fork in the trail and when to stay straight.”
• “The trail descriptions also show elevation gain and loss, maximum elevation, distance, and approximate time it will take to complete the hike. It also details on how to reach the trail-head by car and good times of the year to do certain trails.”
• “It’s so indispensable that experienced hikers will often have multiple editions of this book, in order to stay current.”
• “I wouldn’t be caught dead on a trail in Banff National Park without it!”
• “Travelling through Banff, Jasper, and Robson I found the book accurate in the details and broad in the coverage of trails.”
• “The Trail Guide enabled me to have 15 days of great hiking. I would highly recommend it for anyone’s vacation in the Canadian Rockies.”
• “Don’t weight down your packs with anything else, this book is simply THE REFERENCE for hiking ANY of the parks in the Banff area. The trail descriptions are so explicit and so correct. The maps make everything a cinch.”

The criticism reviewers have of the book are few.  One is the lack of trail difficulty ratings in an easy to use format, though this is information obtainable elsewhere.  Another is the lack of trail coverage in some of the smaller Canadian Rockies parks.

Some people also recommend bring topo maps for any serious hiking (or a GPS with topo maps installed on it) but others say that the maps in the book are all you need.

Because the book is 480-pages thick, you may want to photocopy pages of planned Canadian Rockies hikes ahead of time.  This is something I often do when I want to travel light.

So, it sounds like this is the one Canadian Rockies hiking book you need to own.  Check the Canadian Rockies Trail Guide out!

Maybe you’ll see me on the trails next summer too with this book in hand.

Happy hiking!